Chiropractic and Prep Volleyball: Health Above the Net
By Paul Rothbart
Name a sport that is played on a court, uses a net, is played in high school by both boys and girls who are constantly jumping. You probably said basketball but volleyball is where we’re headed. It’s a sport played in high school, college, at the Olympics, and in professional leagues. It’s played in gyms, arenas, on the grass, and at the beach.
Volleyball can be fun to watch and enjoyable to play. And even though it’s a non-contact sport, playing volleyball places plenty of physical demands on its participants.
Is Volleyball Physically Taxing?
To the uninitiated, volleyball may seem like an easy-to-play sport that doesn’t take too much out of you while participating at a family reunion. Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to playing competitively. To excel at the sport requires muscular strength, endurance, agility, and a set of skills that need to be improved upon as you move up to higher levels of competition.
Volleyball also requires intense concentration and teamwork. Expending mental energy can contribute to fatigue as well, so volleyball players need to be fit. As in all sports, there are certain injuries that these athletes tend to be vulnerable to.
What Injuries Are Prone to Affect Volleyball Players?
Between jumping, hitting the ball with fingers and hands, and leaping above the net, it should be no surprise that there are common volleyball injuries.
Any sport in which the players are jumping and landing is going to count ankle sprains as a common injury. This is the most common of all injuries that volleyball players suffer. Finger sprains, though generally faster to recover from, occur constantly because it’s easy to jam a finger against the ball.
Knee injuries, such as jumper’s knee, collateral ligament injuries, patellofemoral pain syndrome, damage to the patellar tendon, and ACL injuries are fairly common, especially among elite players.
Pain in the lower back and thrower’s shoulder are frequent as well. Players at the higher levels who train hard tend to develop overuse injuries.
Clearly, volleyball players often develop a need for medical attention and chiropractic adjustments.
How Can Chiropractic Help Volleyball Players?
Many of the typical sports injuries experienced by volleyball players involve the joints or the low back. These areas are where chiropractors shine.
Treating Injuries
Many injuries to the neck and back are caused by subluxations or compressed discs. Often, pain experienced in one part of the body is created by a problem in another, like upper back pain causing shoulder pain. When it comes to sports medicine, chiropractic treatment can correct these issues, relieving pain, and speeding the healing process. Chiropractic care may have volleyballers returning to play more quickly.
Preventing Injuries
The best way to deal with injuries is to keep them from happening in the first place. Eliminating athletes from getting hurt altogether is not possible, but the risk of injury can be reduced.
Can chiropractic care help to prevent injuries? In short, yes. Regular treatments can keep the back and joints properly aligned and allow them to function through their full range of motion. Optimal functionality strengthens the body and makes it less vulnerable to many kinds of injury.
In helping the body perform optimally, chiropractic can help boost the performance of athletes. Full range of motion in the joints allows for higher jumps and greater extension. Properly aligned vertebrae may take pressure off of the spinal cord, which can improve the nervous system’s ability to coordinate movement, which is important to performing well in a volleyball match.
What Impact Does Chiropractic Have on High School Athletes?
High school student athletes have busy and challenging schedules. In addition to studying for exams and writing papers, they have training, practice, and a schedule of practice and games.
Young athletes have bodies that are still growing, which adds an additional area of concern. Regular chiropractic treatments can help high school players in every way that it does their adult counterparts. Proper alignment in the spine and joints can help ensure that their bodies grow and develop properly. These teen volleyballers can become strong and healthy adult athletes.
Useful Tips to Aid the Health of High School Athletes
In addition to chiropractic tips for volleyball players, there is useful advice for protecting the health of high school athletes in general.
Good Nutrition
Eating well is critical to everyone’s health, and teenagers -- whether they play sports or not -- are no exception. Their growing bodies need good nutrition. Fast food and sugary drinks should be avoided or, at the very least, minimized. A young athlete needs lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, and whole grains, eaten throughout the day. A solid meal a few hours before a game will provide the energy needed for top performance.
Hydration
A young athlete cannot perform well when dehydrated and they will also be at greater risk of injury. Water is by far the best choice for hydration, although some sports drinks can be good. Check labels carefully because many are loaded with sugar. Drinking water daily, as well as before, after, and during practices and games, is essential to the health of a young athlete.
Sleep
Sleep is when the body refreshes and restores itself. Young athletes often do not get enough of it. A teenager needs 8-9 solid hours of sleep each night. A dark, quiet sleep environment free of electronics, paired with relaxing the last two hours before going to bed can optimize the quality of sleep.
Strength Training
Strength training builds up muscles and improves coordination. This helps to reduce the risk of injury as well as improve physical health. All strength training activities should be supervised to ensure proper technique and form. Performing any of these exercises improperly can result in a serious injury.
Is the Physiology of Boys and Girls Volleyball Players Different?
Generally, most musculoskeletal injuries are more specific to the sport the athletes play rather than their gender. Recent findings have shown that female athletes tend to be more prone to ACL injuries than their male counterparts. The ACL is the anterior cruciate ligament and is in the middle of the knee; it prevents the shin bone from sliding in front of the thigh bone.
There are three factors involved in the increased risk of an ACL injury that differ between boys and girls.
Ligamentous Laxity
Ligamentous laxity refers to having hypermobile joints with a wider range of motion than the average person. This added flexibility can be advantageous in sports such as gymnastics.
However, the reason for the added flexibility is that some of the ligaments in a joint are not connected to bone. This increases the risk of injuries, such as to ACLs, when stress is placed upon the knee.
According to Yale Medicine, due to the menstrual cycle, girls have greater laxity in their joints, especially during peak levels of estrogen and progesterone. This accounts for the greater risk of injury.
Biomechanical Alignment
Biomechanical alignment is the arrangement of bones in the skeletal structure. There are several differences between girls and boys in terms of this alignment.
Girls generally have a wider pelvis, greater tibial torsion, increased Q angles, and increased femoral anteversion. All of these are technical anatomy terms but, put simply, add up to increased risk of ACL injuries.
Intercondylar Notch Width
At the bottom of the femur, where it attaches to the knee joint, is a groove called the intercondylar notch. It houses several structures that are essential to the stability of the joint and the connection.
In some girls, the width of the intercondylar notch is smaller than average, making it less strong and more susceptible to injury. This difference in width is not as prevalent as the other factors between the genders but can play a factor in some female athletes.
Do the Best Volleyball Players Use Chiropractic?
Volleyball has come a long way in recent decades. In 1983, the Association of Volleyball Professionals was founded to promote the sport and the athletes. In 1996, beach volleyball was added to the slate of competition in the Summer Olympics. Thirty-two years earlier in Tokyo, men’s and women’s indoor volleyball made its Olympic debut.
Players who compete at such high levels need every edge they can get. It’s no surprise that there are top volleyball players who take advantage of regular chiropractic treatments.
Lisa Rutledge is a professional beach volleyball player who sees her chiropractor 2-3 times per week. She credits the visits with keeping her body aligned and in top form as she takes long plane flights and competes in matches all around the world, pushing her body to the max.
U.S. Olympian April Ross learned the value of chiropractic at an early age. Her father is a chiropractor and she has regularly gone in for adjustments throughout her career. Ross wouldn’t dream of competing without her treatments and she credits chiropractic with helping her earn a silver medal.
Dr. Allen Manison of Columbia, Md., works with the National Volleyball League, helping keep its professional athletes healthy and performing their best.
Volleyball is more than just a fun game to play in gym class or on the beach. It’s competitive, challenging, and takes a toll on the body. If you play competitively, regular chiropractic treatments can help. The Joint Chiropractic has locations throughout the country and you -- or your student athlete -- don’t need an appointment. Before setting that next spike, stop in and see what chiropractic can do for you.
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